Recent Archives

Jaswant Singh’s spy claim

Dear
Editor,

Mr Jaswant Singh, former External Affairs Minister has been claiming that there was a mole in Prime Minister Narsimha Rao’s PMO and who had leaked nuclear secrets to the United States. He has, however, consistently refused to name him on the ground that he is doing this in public interest. It is one of the funniest examples I have heard.

This explanation deceives no one because if anything public interest requires that the name of the mole should be exposed, whoever he may be. Moreover, Jaswant Singh should know that non-disclosure is an offence and keeping this information from the police is itself a crime under our penal law. With all this being very clear to Jaswant Singh why is he keeping silent? Some wag may question that the motive is really to save not the mole but the recipient of the information from the mole (who could be no other than an official of the C.I.A.) and the hesitation of Jaswant Singh may be to not to embarrass his old and publicly accepted close friends like Talbort and other officials in the US State Department.

Now, that the Prime Minister has publicly dared Jaswant Singh to name the mole if he (Jaswant Singh) has a decency and courage to do so, there is no alternative for Jaswant Singh but to name the person if he wishes to retain any credibility. Not only that if it is a fact, as Mr Jaswant Singh says, there is no option for him but to name the mole because there is no greater public interest than the country’s security which will suffer if the name of the mole is concealed. After all, Jaswant Singh is writing his true memoirs and not an Agatha Christie or Hercule Poirot’s detective novels. It should not be necessary to remind, well read Jaswant Singh the famous invocation that there are times when it is a duty to speak and a sin to keep silent “The present is a time to speak.” – Rajindar Sachar, July 24, 2006 .